Ross Kemp In Afghanistan

Ross prepares for deployment and joins up with 1 Royal Anglian as they train during a cold British winter on Salisbury Plain. They’re training for what they will face in Afghanistan which includes convoy protection and deploying from Chinook helicopters. During one exercise Ross’ group is attacked and Ross and several others are told that they have been ‘killed’ by the enemy. It’s a sobering thought. Three months later and Ross will be playing this scenario for real. At the end of the episode we see Ross leave the UK and arrive in the war zone that is Afghanistan.

Ross arrives at Camp Bastion, where he is given a medical briefing then sent straight out on an offensive operation in the ‘green zone’, a thin strip of agricultural land that lines the banks of the Helmand. It’s during this first foray that Ross experiences the dangers faced by British soldiers. Only a few hours out from base and the convoy immediately behind Ross’ hits an explosive device. It’s a sobering moment when the crew learn that Corporal Darren Bonner has been killed. Later on in the episode B Company patrol come under fire from Taliban positions. Ross and the crew are pinned down for some minutes by enemy fire before the Army can extract them. It’s the most frightening moment of Ross’ life.

This episode focuses on the life of the soldier – what’s it like to live on Britain’s front line at the Now Zad base. It’s at Now Zad that the Royal Anglians suffered their first casualty, Private Chris Gray, killed during a fierce fire fight with Taliban fighters in May 2007. Ross meets his mother Helen Gray and talks to her about how it feels to have lost her son to the conflict.

While Ross is back in the UK three soldiers from B Company are killed in a tragic blue-on-blue accident. On the 23rd August Privates Aaron James McClure, Robert Graham Foster and John Thrumble died when the air support called in to help defeat the enemy hit the compound in which the three were engaging the Taliban from. Eight days later Ross returns to the frontline to be with the men of B Company and 7 platoon. This episode shows the moments before, during and just after the bomb destroyed the compound; and talk with the men who tell Ross how they feel about what has happened. Ross joins the fire-support group as they attack Taliban positions and re-assert their dominance of the area since the blue-on-blue attack. This is just one-half of the operation.

Ross joins 1 Royal Anglian as they capture and destroy the compound in which the three men were killed. At times the Taliban are no more than 50 metres away. Back in the UK Ross talks to the Foster family about their tragic loss and interviews Corporal Stuart Parker, a soldier who miraculously survived the bombing. After six months overseas 1 Royal Anglian returns to the UK. It’s an emotional moment as their families meet them on the parade ground. They’ve been away fighting on Britain’s Frontline for six months.

Ross is back with Delta Company, 5 Scots, in the remote town of Musa Qaleh, located deep in Taliban territory. The town is kept free from the Taliban by a ring of manned patrol bases. However, there is a weak point. In the fiercely fought-over green zone no one has dared set up a patrol base. That is until now. Delta Company have been tasked to establish a temporary patrol base in compound 69, an empty compound in the heart of the green zone.